New Biography Outs British Acting Legend, Sir Alan Bates

Sir Alan Bates – the British acting god whose credits included Zorba the Greek, Georgy Girl, An Unmarried Woman, and Gosford Park – is the latest star to be posthumously outed – even though he had a long-term marriage to Victoria Ward. A new biography, written by Donald Spoto and excerpted in The Daily Mail, details serious same-sex affairs, including one with the late figure skater, John Curry. “Alan enjoyed an intense, two-year romance with Curry while still married to Victoria Ward. When he later discovered that Curry was suffering the ravages of AIDS, he tended his old flame throughout his last days. Curry eventually died in his arms.” Bates himself died of pancreatic cancer in 2003.

Queerty has the YouTube clip of Bates’ infamous nude-wrestling scene with Oliver Reed in 1969’s Women in Love. Not safe for work, obviously.

George Michael, like his frequent sparring partner Elton John, is a big-time art collector. “In the past month, the superstar has spent $20 million on pieces by controversial shark-pickler Damien Hirst, among others, boosting the value of his personal collection up to a whopping $80 million.”(Page Six)

Inside the Big Brother house, which features an innovation: a bath in a living room.(BBC)

The Guardian‘s David Bennum blames Paul McCartney’s solo output for his rep as the schmaltzy Beatle: “It is, you have to suspect, the solo work that has done the damage. Post-Beatles, Lennon indulged his neuroses, convictions (whatever they happened to be that week), and grudges, turning out music that was often stark, fierce, and compelling. McCartney, meanwhile, gratified his whims and domestic fancies.”

A Guardian interview with the “very nervous” Mackenzie Crook, who talks about his stand-up career, the Pirates sequel, and his bravura performance in Chekhow‘s The Seagull “I had a profound experience doing that. I’m still mourning it at the moment. I was reciting my words on my way here today, hoping that I still remembered them, because we are hoping to do it again.”

Dakota Blue Richards, a 13-year-old unknown, steals the screen from stars Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig in His Dark Materials.(Guardian)